


Coffee and Cakes (But Not Coffee Cakes)

by Girl_With_No_Aesthetic_04



Category: Zoey's Extraordinary Playlist (TV)
Genre: Domestic Bliss, F/M, How Do I Tag, I Tried, I desperately want cake, I just want her to be happy, Joanne "Joey" Haynes-Clarke, Magaline "Maggie" Haynes-Clarke, Morris Haynes-Clarke, Tobin "Toby" Haynes-Clarke, Zoey's just really happy guys, i think, pretty fluffy, seriously help me tag, so I wrote this
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-13
Updated: 2020-06-13
Packaged: 2021-03-04 01:02:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,594
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24694966
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Girl_With_No_Aesthetic_04/pseuds/Girl_With_No_Aesthetic_04
Summary: White linen sheets ruled her mornings, kids and coding her days, and the bustle of the city her night. Sometimes she wondered what would’ve happened if India hadn’t helped Max, if she hadn’t begun therapy, if she’d chosen Max, hell, if she hadn’t watched Game of Thrones. But it was never for long.
Relationships: (mentioned) David Clarke/Emily, (mentioned) Joan/Ava Price, (mentioned) Maggie Clarke/Mitch Clarke, (mentioned) Max Richman/Original Female Character, (mentioned) Tobin Batra/Leif Donnelly, (mentioned) Zoey Clarke & Max Richman, Eddie/Mo (Zoey's Extraordinary Playlist), Zoey Clarke & Mo, Zoey Clarke/Simon Haynes
Comments: 4
Kudos: 11





	Coffee and Cakes (But Not Coffee Cakes)

**Author's Note:**

> Hey, so if you can take a moment to look at the link before the fic, it would be huge. The Black Lives Matter movement is huge in so many people's lives, including mine. I'm not black, but I want those who are to know I hear you and stand with you. The link is a card that has ways you can help, including links to petitions and donating. That's all for now. https://blmsites.carrd.co/
> 
> Please excuse any grammar and/or spelling errors, this is mostly unedited.
> 
> (Also I have no affiliation with Zoey's Extraordinary Playlist because I am, in fact, a minor by US law.)

White linen sheets were often the sight she woke up to. Her head would be buried underneath or in them; either way, it typically would leave her neck aching. Sometimes the sight was different. Sometimes it was a pillow her face was buried in, other times her husband was the sight she saw first in the morning (and damn it was a sight to see.) On certain days, like Christmas or a birthday, what would jostle her from sleep was her children jumping on the bed. But it was often the white linen sheets.

Today it was the white linen sheets. That was something she noticed more as time went on. White linen sheets ruled her mornings, her husband, kids, and coding her days, and the bustle of the city her night.

She reached over, hoping to feel her husband weighing down the other half of the bed. But no human skin touched her fingers, no warmth, only the linen bed sheets. 

She lifted her hand to gaze at the rings on her finger. Her engagement ring, white sapphire and her wedding ring, a silver band engraved with “Howdy”, glittered in the sunlight that spilled through the windows and illuminated the room. He also had it engraved on his wedding band. When she had first seen it at the altar, she started sobbing uncontrollably. And while crying at weddings was expected, the sheer amount had been a bit worrying to her guests.

She slowly sat up, a billowy blanket sliding off her shoulders. She vaguely smelled coffee, overpowered by the smell of something else. Probably something in the oven.

She slipped on one of Simon’s button ups, put on socks, and quietly padded her way down the stairs. Houses weren’t cheap in San Francisco, but god they were nice.

The sight of the twins sleeping on the grey couch gave her the idea that everyone else was up. This was supported by the idea of the three, somewhat hushed voices could be heard from the kitchen.

Zoey made her way towards her youngest children. She often found that when they were sleeping, they looked incredibly peaceful. She often joked this was extremely misleading as the two were tremendously rambunctious. Then again, they were four, and four year olds are typically rambunctious. 

Her youngest daughter’s red hair was distinct from her youngest son’s dark hair. Then again, her red hair was distinct from all her siblings’ dark hair. But she and her twin, they looked the most distinct. Their eyes and skin tones were different. Toby (named after their co-worker; Tobin had bestowed the nickname Toby on him) had just about every feature (skin tones and cheek bones) their father had, while Maggie had their mother’s. Although, Simon would never not point out Toby had his mother’s nose, while Zoey always said Maggie had her father’s.

She sat down next to Toby, and ran her fingers across his forehead, which promptly woke him up. He was the lightest sleeper in the family, often waking up in the middle of the night during a storm or earthquake, while his siblings slept through it.

“Momma, you aren’t supposed to be up.” He said, his tone hushed and conspiratorial. His gaze was hard, but she almost couldn’t take it seriously as the look he gave her was more doe-eyed than anything.

And then of course, because she hadn’t already been convinced her youngest children had a telepathic link, Maggie's big, blue eyes opened as she groggily asked, “Wait, Momma’s up?”

Zoey put a finger to her lips and seriously stated, “Don’t tell anyone.”

The twins nodded, their eyes wide, and god, even though they were fraternal, she thought they looked more alike than ever in that moment.

Her son climbed into her lap, while her daughter crawled her way next to her. It was an oddly emotional sensation; she didn’t think she’d ever get used to the fact that these tiny humans, that she and her husband made, would crawl into her lap to seek comfort or tug on her hair. 

“Who woke you up?” A voice came from the doorframe.

Joey, six years old, and still so, _so_ sassy stood in the doorway, practically glaring. “Was it them?”

“Not at all, baby. In fact, I’m pretty sure it was the rest of you… I don’t even know what you’re doing.” She raised her voice so the other two could hear her. “Hey, are you guys baking in there?”

A long, exaggerated sigh came from the kitchen, and Simon and Morris came from the kitchen. Simon had his hands up in surrender while Morris had a sheepish grin.

“Guilty as charged.” Simon smiled. “Good to see you’re finally up, Sleepy.”

The nickname always made her smile. He had adopted it the day she had fallen asleep at while working on the Chirp out of pure exhaustion, and Simon had been the one tasked with taking her home. The next day, it was his new nickname for her that Tobin and Leif had also picked up on. And when India and Max came down for lunch, they were calling her Sleepy too. She didn’t really care at the time, but as time went on, she liked it more, especially when it became one of Simon’s terms of endearment towards her.

Toby bounced off her lap, and Zoey walked to meet Simon. He wrapped his arms around her when she reached him. She tilted her head up, and he met her halfway and kissed her. After a second, they stopped and looked at their kids, Maggie and Toby still on the couch with big smiles on their faces, Joey and her scrunched up nose, and Morris who had rolled his eyes.

“Morning,” Zoey said, “Now do any of you care to tell me why you’re up on a Sunday morning? At…” she leaned to see the clock on the wall, “eight in the morning?”

The kids typically woke around nine or ten on Saturdays and Sundays, considering they didn’t go to church and started school at 8:00 on weekdays, they let it fly.

Toby and Maggie pointed at Joey. “Jo Jo woke us up.” Toby commented, using the name he preferred calling his older sister.

“Don’t look at me,” Joey followed up, “Morris woke me up.”

“And I woke up Dad.” Morris stated. He seemed very proud.

“Why?” She asked.

Morris shrugged. “Dad, tell Mom why.”

Simon snorted at the response. He turned to his wife. “He wanted you to wake up to the surprise of coffee and cakes.”

“But not coffee cakes.” Maggie cut in. “Coffee cakes are gross.” When she said ‘coffee cakes’ her nose scrunched, an exact copy of her older sister. Zoey almost snorted at that. God her daughters were sassy as shit, and she was so proud of them.

And honestly, despite the amount of sugar in any given cake, she couldn’t help but want coffee and a cake now.

“What type of cake?” She asked.

“Cakes, Mom.” Joey sighed. “Funfetti and cheesecake.”

Zoey had never considered herself a religious or even spiritual person. She’d been to church only a few times in her life, once because she was genuinely curious about what it was like, but the other times were mostly to support Mo when he sang. But in that moment, she couldn’t resist a certain phrase. “Jesus, Mary, and Joseph, Si, two cakes? What was this planned?”

He grinned sheepishly. Morris and Joey were developing the biggest smiles.

“Are you serious?!” Zoey cackled. Her memory flashed to Mo and Eddie’s visit two days ago. “Is Mo in on this?”

“Of course, child.” Mo’s voice came from the kitchen. “Who else was going to supervise your husband?”

Zoey howled. Simon seemed like he was trying to be mad, but the smile on his face betrayed his faux anger. Toby and Maggie got up from the couch and joined the family in the doorway.

“Well isn’t this domestic.” Simon whispered into her ear. She smiled. That it absolutely was. 

Domestic was a word Zoey wasn’t exactly used to when describing her life. Her parents’ life had been domestic. David and Emily’s life, while not typically domestic has those hints of domesticity. Not her’s. Her life wasn’t domestic. Except, it was. She was married happily and had four kids. _Four_. That was something she had never expected. But _god_ she was so, so happy. She glanced up at her husband. He smiled down at her, and kissed her temple.

Sometimes she wondered what would’ve happened if the certain things that changed her life hadn’t happened. Perhaps Simon kissing her was the first of all of those things. 

But she found herself wondering over other things. She’d made a conscious choice between how she wanted the men in her life to be in her life. She’d chosen Simon romantically over Max romantically. But the fact that Max was still in her life was amazing to her. She wanted him to remain a friend and he is.

What if she had chosen Max over Simon? 

She thought it over for hours and days on end. She knew not long after her dad died, but kept her choice to herself. She didn’t want to be labelled as not thinking clearly. But it just became more clear as time went on. It was Simon.

What if she hadn’t started therapy?

She had thought about it before, especially approaching her father’s death. She had thought about it after his death too. But Simon talking to her about it, that was what pushed her to try it. And it helped. _God_ it helped. It helped to mend her broken friendship with Max. And it was ultimately what pushed her to ask out Simon.

What if she hadn’t met India?

She’d met India at the Women in Coding convention Joan had taken her to. India had recently been laid off a coding job at Google when Zoey met her. She had been considering applying for a job at SPRQ Point. And she heard about everything. Zoey, Simon, Max, and the rest of the floor’s issues, and knew she could help somehow. About two months later, she was working on the 6th floor of SPRQ Point. And she did help everyone. She helped Tobin and Leif admit their feelings for each other. She helped repair the tension between Max and Zoey (and also urged Zoey to go to therapy). Zoey suspected she was also the one who helped Joan and Ava get back together. She cared so much for these people she barely knew at the time. 

Zoey supposed it made sense that Max fell in love with India. That India helped change his clearly veiled misogyny. That India later fell for him. 

So, yes, she sometimes wondered. She wondered what would’ve happened if India hadn’t helped Max, if she hadn’t begun therapy, if she’d chosen Max, hell, if she hadn’t watched Game of Thrones. But it was never for long. Because then she’d remember why she chose Simon. She loved him. She loved being in his arms, she loved the way her heart fluttered when she saw him, still, she loved the way he looked at her. She loved all the little things he’d do for her. And he made her so happy.

“What are you thinking about?” Simon’s voice pulled her from her thoughts. She glanced around and realized she must’ve been out of it for a bit. Five distinct voices were coming from the kitchen.

She turned herself around so she was facing him and wrapped her arms around his neck.

“Just how fucking happy I am I met you. Even if the timing wasn’t ideal.” She said to him. He smiled broadly at her, and leaned down to kiss her. It was chaste, short, and he vaguely tasted of cake batter. She smiled against his lips.

He brought her left hand down and kissed her knuckle right over where her ring is. He ran his thumb over her knuckles.

“Me too, Soulmate.” He whispered. She buried her face in his chest.

“How sweet.” Mo commented, a decorated cake in hand. “You two behave, there’s children nearby.”

“Quiet from Auncle Mo.” Simon announced. Zoey cackled. While the term wasn’t commonly used in their household, as her kids typically just called Mo by his name, when talking to others, Mo was Auncle Mo.

“Don’t talk to the person holding the Funfetti cake like that, Haynes. He might just drop it.” Mo retorted.

Zoey was laughing so hard, she was practically crying. Simon was laughing too. 

Morris entered the room and tugged on Mo’s sleeve after he set the cake on the table. “Mo?” He asked.

“Yes, Peaches?”

“Will Eddie be joining us?” Morris questioned.

“He will be joining us, Peaches. He’s just out getting some coffee, because,” Mo turned to Zoey, “your husband can’t make coffee for shit and wasted the last of your coffee trying to make some. Excuse my language, Peaches.”

Zoey laughed, “It’s true.” She glanced up at Simon. “How on Earth do you mess up coffee?”

Simon shrugged. “I’ve always been bad at making coffee.”

“That should’ve been the dealbreaker for me.” Zoey joked, wrapping her arms around him.

“Yet you still married me.”

“Yeah, I did. I guess I love you or something.” Simon laughed at that and leaned down to kiss her.

“Ugh,” Mo groaned, “Morris, help me get the other cake, your parents are being gross.”

Simon flipped him off as he left the room. “Jokes on Mo, we’re always like this.”

“This is true.” Zoey commented. And it was. Once the two had gotten together, they were never uncomfortable being affectionate towards each other. They weren’t big on PDA, especially at work, but they were always affectionate.

Eddie arrived a few minutes later with ground Hawaiian coffee beans that Zoey knew were from Safeway, despite him telling her kids otherwise. She didn’t really mind.

As it turned out Mo, Simon, and Eddie had also made pancakes, bacon, and eggs to have some semblance of a healthy meal to eat. The coffee was made fairly quickly, provided for the adults (although Mo gave Simon a joking “are-you-sure-you’re-an-adult” look before he handed him a coffee), and apple juice was poured for the kids.

(Zoey wouldn’t say that the reason Morris had accepted the apple juice was that she told him it was either the apple juice or water. He chose the former.)

  
  


When everyone settled at the table there was a steady stream of chatter, and Zoey’s mind couldn’t help but wander. 

She didn’t know if her children had inherited the power. She didn’t know if it would affect them based on gender. But her daughters (Maggie in particular as Joey tended to stay quiet over things she found confusing), she noticed, were the ones who’d bring up a flash mob Zoey would see out of the corner of her eye. Her sons had never spoken about such an occurrence to her and if they had told Simon he would’ve told her, so she ruled them out.

She remembered crying multiple times during each of her pregnancies, her first specifically. She was nervous that her kids might not be able to express if they heard the songs or if they did hear them, not tell her and Simon about it for fear of judgement. So she and Simon asked for them to be transparent about things they were going through. She was expecting them to not be honest about a few things, especially in the future. Maybe sex, maybe drugs or alcohol, maybe sexuality. While the twins were young and hadn't had the same exact talk of honesty that Morris and somewhat Joey had (and that talk was subject to change as time went on and they’d figure themselves out), Maggie and Toby had gotten a talk on honesty. She could just hope that _if_ they had that stupid capability they could talk about it with her, so to avoid a situation where she had to explain it and risk sounding crazy.

Her thoughts lingered on the word. Future.

She had no clue where the future would take them. She could imagine a few scenarios, the most prominent being Joey on the bus flipping some guy off. She always smiled at that. But she couldn’t see much else. Maybe it was because she still didn’t really know much about these little things she carried because they didn’t know much about themselves yet. Or maybe it was because the future was uncertain and she could never really know what would happen until it was happening. Either way both thoughts frightened her a bit and she brought her attention back to the conversation at hand.

Breakfast went by fast as Mo and Zoey debated details of memories of their early friendship that her children demanded to know. Eddie and Simon just leaned back and enjoyed the trip down memory lane, sometimes interjecting if they remembered something differently.

After breakfast, Zoey actually got dressed and Eddie and Mo decided that everyone was going to enjoy a long day at Dolores Park. It wasn’t long. What must’ve been at least four hours, including grabbing lunch at Mama Ji’s, felt more like ten minutes. The times of the pictures that were taken on her phone told a contrasting story to her sense of time, but still. Around 3:00 pm, they stopped by Mo and Eddie’s place real quick, waited in the car while Mo gave a key to a new tenant at the building where they both used to live, and then Mo and Eddie dropped them off at Pier 39 so Simon and Zoey could take the kids to Aquarium of the Bay, something the kids never seemed tired of seeing. 

At around 7:00, Maggie had crashed and was positioned on Simon’s shoulder, and despite Toby saying he wasn’t tired, Zoey was constantly reminding him he wasn’t tired as he was dozing off. So they called a cab and made their way back home. Toby and Morris fell asleep in the cab, while Joey stayed up just to spite them.

When they got back, they woke Morris up and ushered the older siblings to brush their teeth and go to the bathroom before they went to bed. They carried the twins to their room, dressed them for bed, and let them go to sleep. One night of not brushing wouldn’t kill them. 

Simon kissed her temple. “Do you wanna watch a movie or something?”

“How about an episode of The 100?” She answered.

He raised an eyebrow. “Seriously? Joey’s not even asleep yet, we both know she's faking.”

She thought about it for another moment. “Wanna start season three of Anne with an E?”

“Sure, give me a moment.”

He left the room, heading towards the bathroom. She pulled Netflix up and he was out a minute later. He sat down and she cuddled up next to him as they started the episode.

They made it through two episodes before deciding to retire for the night. She kissed him and asked him to give her a minute. He nodded.

She opened the music app and put her headphones in, starting a playlist Mo had made for her.

_“This is a playlist that’s perfect for the domestic life you have.”_ He had said.

There was that word again.

Domestic.

The first song was Strawberry Blond by Mitski. Despite the rather sad lyrics, she still jumped around. The next song was Still Into You by Paramore. She paused at the end, as she noticed Simon leaning against the doorway, smiling.

She smiled back. “Wanna dance?”

He didn’t answer instead walking up, taking the earbud she had out, and placing it in his ear. She hit play.

The first notes of Lover hit her like a train. _Jesus, Mary, and Joseph, did Mo plan this_?

But she paid the thought no mind and began a slow dance with Simon, her head against his chest.

Taylor Swift filled her ears and spoke right to her heart. She knew Simon felt it too.

The dance was slow and personal, although he did try to turn her at a point, which caused a bit of a problem with the wires, but they worked around it. When the song finished, she paused the music.

“Bed?” He asked.

“Bed.” She confirmed.

They made their way upstairs, hand-in-hand, smiling the whole time.

She took her shoes and dress off, and put on an XL shirt she bought as a nightgown in a way. She didn’t wear makeup that day, not having the chance to put any on, so that lightened her nighttime routine. She washed her face and brushed her teeth.

She crawled into bed, Simon already there. He turned the light on his bedside table and she did too. He opened his arms and she scooched into them.

It was quiet for a few minutes, the loud city drowned out by their quiet neighborhood.

“I love you.” He stated.

“I love you, too.” She responded. She leaned up and kissed the corner of his lips.

He fell asleep not long after that. She looked out the window from her place in the bed. She could see the bay from the second floor, and she often noted she liked the look of it more at night. Surrounded by the lights of the city at night, it was gorgeous. 

She loved it.

“This is good.” She said to herself. “This is good.”

And then sleep claimed her.

**Author's Note:**

> Hey, so this was super fun to write and also my first fanfic on here! I started it in April I think, and have just kept writing and kind of editing it. I'm very open to criticism of any kind that you may have concerning it or my writing in general.
> 
> I'd would recommend Mama Ji's if you're ever in the Castro. A group of friends and I went last year and the food was pretty good. 
> 
> I hope you enjoyed!


End file.
